Finding Utopia

NEWS FLASH!

FOUND UTOPIA  STOP  IT'S IN PORTLAND ORE  STOP  ITS NOT WHAT WE THOUGHT IT WAS LIKE  STOP  PEOPLE HERE CALL IT WEIRD  STOP  

Excerpt from Willamette Week article, February 9, 2016 - 28 Reasons to Love Portland Right Now, by Martin Cizmar:

"What follows is a list of 28 things that make us feel lucky to live in this city right now."

"That starts with our excitement about finally getting to put a group of seditionists representing the values shared by much of the middle part of this country on trial, right here in Portland. Don't let the countryfolk drawn to town for the Bundy trial hear you trashing our liberal utopia. When you complain about Portland, the terrorists win."

Remember Martin Cizmar?   He remembers us.   His job title at WW is "Culture editor".  I thought this paragraph was absurd and wanted to share it.  Is this the way Portlanders think now?  Oh dear!  (Note: USC does not condone the Bundy group's activities in Oregon.). The humor is in the way Cizmar elevates Portland to a kind of Nirvana that can't tolerate the values of those "in the middle part of this country."  He assumes his attitudes are universal within the city.  They are not.  

Culture editor Martin Cizmar writes about food, beer, jam bands, country music, gangsta rap, bikes, cannabis and the outdoors. He’s originally from a smallish city in the part of Ohio that was once part of Connecticut and has worked as a reporter at dailies in Michigan, Virginia and Arizona and as music editor at the alt-weekly in Phoenix. He’s a passionate advocate for unfettered access to public lands, the repatriation of Oregon wolves, increased urban density and good machaca burritos. He is unwelcome in the cities of Salem and Lake Oswego.




Actually, I did find Utopia and it's in Arizona - and a lot of other places, but that's another story.  

Municipal broadband - think again

The future is here, so why is Lake Oswego going backwards?  

Fiber wire broadband, strung on poles all over town, by a local company that has never done this before, and making a deal that obligates the city to annual payments for 30 years - payments that will come out of the general fund (city services) if not enough subscribers sign up every year for 30 years .... does this sound like a good idea to you?

It would be surprising if the city could hold onto its minimum number of clients for long - certainly not 30 years.  Wireless internet is being rolled out in some cities - the technology is new and not perfected or widespread, but it won't be too long for improvements that will make wireless broadband the popular choice for internet users.

 Just think - no early 20th-Century overhead wires prone to weather-related outages, no expensive poles and wires to maintain and repair, nor underground infrastructure to install or wires coming into your house.

There are plenty of reasons for municipalities to not compete with private markets to sell services to its citizens, and putting out a poor product with a potential money-losing contract and a newbie provider are big ones.  Perhaps the City Council will exercise its last ditch option  to abandon this fiber wire deal and not sign the contract with this unproven firm in April.  

This deal sounds second rate - not something a smart community would buy into.  Read the letter and article below, and then let your mayor and council know what you think!   There is still time for the city to back away, but the clock is ticking! 

Lake Oswego Review.  
February 4, 2016
Laters to the Editor

Wait For Wireless 

Fiber-to-the-home networks certainly sound enticing: amazingly fast speeds at a reasonable price point. But they are quickly becoming obsolete, and I'd hate to see the City of Lake Oswego invest any money in one.

New wireless 5G networks coming within a couple of years will provide speeds comparable to Google Fiber, and wireless networks don't have to invest in all that expensive fiber

cabling from the central office, laboriously strung across thousands of telephone poles where they're susceptible to fiber cuts and weather issues, ending in complex home demark equipment. Prices will likely be comparable, given the typically small household usage.

In the meantime, current 20-50 Mbps offerings over the existing coax cable network (Comcast, etc.) will tide us over nicely.

Jim Battan
West Linn 

Bloomberg Business
January 27, 2016  By Joshua Brustein 

Aereo Founder Aims Wireless Broadband Service At Cord-Cutters

Chet Kanojia is taking on entrenched players such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Technical challenges abound.

Chet Kanojia is a man who likes to buzz in the ears of the biggest,
most entrenched players he can find. On Wednesday, the founder of the failed Internet television service Aereo launched Starry—a company that aims to replace the wired broadcast access sold by cable and phone companies like Time Warner Cable and Verizon with a new type of wireless network.

Use link above to read more.

The first horse enters the race

Warming up.

Only one candidate has declared for Mayor, and none for the 3 City Council positions that will come open, but you can expect a spirited election season to come.

Again, the Metro-led urbanization (Portland Creep) will take central stage as the central issue facing the city.      

Kent Studabaker will start pulling in bucks in a big way with a $250 per head fundraising party planned for early February.  By the end of February, campaign contributions over $100 should be showing up on the Secretary of State election site: https://.secure.sos.state.or.us/ORESTAR/GotoSearchByName.do  

Contributions below $100 do not show who the supporters are.

Studebaker has the advantage of once again being advised by big-time political strategist, Elaine Franklin.  She helped him get elected in 2012, and helped Patrick Kessi with the PR campaign to get public opinion on his side for the Wizer Block Development.  Elaine loaned her skills to Joe Buck when he ran for City Council in 2014, and included Jeff Gudman and Jackie Manz in the 3J Campaign Flyer.  Franklin's contributions to the campaigns were "in-kind".

Who will step into the races for City leadership this year, and will it be their ideas or their money that gets them into office?